Interpretive Summary: The chapter Seed Production in the text book Forages, Volume 2: The Science of Grassland Agriculture published by the Iowa State University Press provides information describing the environmental factors and production practices that affect forage crop seed production. The chapter is written at the upper division undergraduate and graduate student levels.

Technical Abstract:
This book chapter provides information at the upper division undergraduate and graduate student levels that describe the environmental factors and production practices that affect the capacity of forage crops to produce seeds. Consumers require dependable quantities of high quality seeds. Special rules used by seed producers are needed to help ensure that cultivars remain true to the genetic composition as originally developed by plant breeders. In the past, when farmers needed seeds for planting, they allowed fields to produce seeds as a by-product of forage production. Presently, most seeds utilized for forage production are produced as specialty seed crops in regions geographically removed from areas where the seed will be utilized, but where environmental conditions are conducive to dependable seed yields.